


starting at forever

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fix-It, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Kissing, Love, Male-Female Friendship, Older Man/Younger Woman, Time Loop, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 15:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16266851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: Written for Cousyfixit prompt: time travel/time loop. Daisy and Coulson discover they're stuck in a time loop. Set in S5.





	starting at forever

"What day is it?"

He stops fiddling with his prosthetic and turns over his shoulder to look at her as she settles inside the room.

"I don't know?" he answers honestly. After all, they're somewhere in the future.

The Kree seem to have a way of keeping details like that from the survivors.

Earth has been destroyed and they're supposed to stop it.

It begins here.

"You feel that's important?" he asks her, turning all the way around in the chair now.

She looks towards the door, and draws closer to him, kneeling down beside the table.

"Yes. I feel like we've done this before," she says conspiratorily. 

"That seems entirely possible," he says, sitting back in the chair, regarding her with his elbow on the table.

"If we're supposed to change it," she reminds him. "There has to be a way for us to get back. Which means that already happened, right?"

She is looking at him like she is desperate to be believed.

"We could leave some kind of call sign? As a test?" he agrees.

"A radio recording, like Deke's parents?" she suggests. "But it could be found if they're searching radio frequencies."

"Something in plain sight, then. A symbol." He says. "We can't be sure we would remember the details."

"Do you think we should talk about this with the others?" she asks him, standing and crossing her arms, staring at the open door again.

"Maybe we should keep this to ourselves until we've tested it?" he says, tapping on the wood table with his fingers.

She nods at him, watching him wince, and squeeze his fist shut.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

"I'm fine."

  
###

  
"Robin," Daisy mentions to him.

"It's only happening to us," he tells her. "Do you want to risk them finding out and interfering-"

"She can see all of it, Phil," Daisy tells him. "It isn't one day at a time to her, it's a jumble of past-present-future."

"I'm remembering things, too," he tells her, his eyes getting wider.

"More?" she asks him, lowering her voice so they can't be overheard here.

"I-" his eyes flutter for a moment, and he takes in a sharp breath. "I'm dying."

She gives him a small smile and puts her hand on his arm. "Isn't that how we always end up here?"

"No, I'm dying. Right now. And we'll have to say goodbye soon."

"For how long? Until we're back here again?" she asks him, frowning.

"I'm not sure," he sighs and slips his fingers around her elbow.

"When were you going to tell me?" she asks him, fighting the urge to pull away. "Tell the team?"

"I didn't think there was a good time?" he says with a shake of his head. "Not with all of this, and morale is low."

"What if stopping you from dying is what makes this loop end?" she asks him sharply.

"That's why I wanted you to know now," he replies, dropping his hand again.

"After everything we've been through, over and over again-"

"It's connected to both of us," he tells her, stepping closer. "There's no possibility you've missed the implications-"

"The GH-325," she says with a shrug, staring back at him. "It's something to do with the Kree."

"No," he tells her, shaking his head. "Tess has the GH-325 in her. It has something to do with us."

"Which is why you're only telling me now that you're dying."

He looks at the palm tree carved into the wood table, touches its outline with his finger.

"Tides in the universe, that you cannot swim against."

  
###

  
"You have to leave me behind," she tells him, coolly walking towards the security doors.

"That's not possible," he tells her, setting his jaw.

"We should test it," she tells him, starting to rewire the doors. "Find out if it alters the loop."

"I can't," he tells her, raising his voice. "I don't know how to explain it, but-"

"We won't know until we try it," she tells him, as she pulls on wires.

"It's what causes all of this, if I leave you behind today, and you know it!"

"What if this isn't even real?" she asks him, turning around as the doors open. "What if we're still in the Framework?"

"No," he says, shaking his head. "We're not. We've talked about that."

"But you can't say for certain," she tells him.

"Walk through that door with me," he tells her stubbornly, putting out his hand. "Trust me. One more time."

"Robin drew something," she says to him. "It was...us. And we were both together and everything else was gone."

"Gone?" he asks, tilting his head. "What is that supposed to mean, gone?"

"It's like a void, and it reminded me of the Framework," she tells him. "That we think we're here, but we're really somewhere else."

"This is because you can't deal with me dying," he reminds her.

"The distance inside the loop is taking longer, can't you feel it? Stretched out."

"Yes, but at least, we know it will happen again," he tells her. "We will happen again."

"It's the same moments," she sighs, leaning her back against the wall. "Over and over. Nothing has changed."

"What?" he asks her, like he's been injured. "Everything has changed."

Her eyes get wider, and start to glisten as he reaches his hand out to touch her face.

"Come with me, Daisy. Please."

  
###

  
She still has the drawing that Robin made of them.

It wasn't what she thought it was after all.

He was right, it was about them.

And a lot of choices. But really, one.

A beginning.

The trick of it was to think about time. That the further they got from each other, the closer they became.

Coulson is in the kitchen, wiping his hands clean after washing them.

She smiles watching him, methodically putting all the ingredients together.

And she sneaks up on him from behind, planting a kiss on his neck and wrapping her arms around him.

"You aren't supposed to be home yet," he tells her, craning his neck to quickly kiss her back.

"Aww, was this a surprise?" she asks, looking down at the counter and cataloging the ingredients.

"Was," he sighs, turning around in her arms, and then pulling her in for a spectacular kiss.

"I have three whole days off in a row," she tells him in a throaty voice, staring into his blue eyes.

He steps back and starts to take off his apron, tossing it on the counter.

"Then, Director Johnson, I can finish this cake later," he says with a grin, backing her against the countertop.

"I prefer Daisy when we're off the clock," she smiles.

He was supposed to die. Only this very last time, he didn't.

She walked back through that door with him.

And they both were there together when Talbot tried to destroy it all.

The Gravitonium is back in a vault where it belongs.

And Talbot is retired, with his family. They still talk sometimes.

"Happy Anniversary, Daisy," he tells her, brushing his nose against hers. "It's only been a year, but, I feel like we've been doing this forever."

She laughs and slips off her jacket, putting it beside his apron.

Pulling him in by the front of his t-shirt for another kiss.

"Forever," she says against his lips. "I like the sound of that."


End file.
